The organiser of the Tour de France, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced Thursday that it had acquired a 49 percent stake in Unipublic, the company which owns the Vuelta a Espaņa. The remaining 51 percent will be retained by Spanish media company Grupo Antena 3 television.

In a statement released by Unipublic, the Vuelta organiser said it had been having trouble establishing its race on the international calendar, but with the help of ASO would be able to increase visibility of the Spanish Grand Tour, held during three weeks of September.

"ASO and Unipublic will work together, starting today, with the goal of accelerating development and the presence of the Vuelta on an international level and to contribute to the strengthening of cycling," read the statement. "Through this agreement, Unipublic will benefit from the ample experience that ASO has in the management of major cycling events."

The deal was first rumored in February and is not likely to please the UCI, whose president Pat McQuaid recently told Cyclingnews that he believed ASO had plans to create a "rival international federation".

ASO is a subsidiary of French media group Amaury, which owns newspapers Le Parisien and L'Equipe. Besides the Tour de France, ASO controls, among others, the Paris-Nice and Paris-Roubaix races as well as the Dakar Rally.

As long as the sport (riders, sponsors, fans) consider the Tour de France to the THE bicycle race, ASO will stay in the catbird seat. And UCI can fax threats with sanctions until they're bloody with paper cuts.

ASO has the muscle - and they know it (unfortunately).

__________________Syke

"No wonder we keep testing positive in their bicycle races. Everyone looks like they're full of testosterone when they're surrounded by Frenchmen." ---Argus Hamilton